


Retrieving the Aionis

by QuillMage



Category: Tales of Symphonia
Genre: Excerpts from the Holy Scripture of the Church of Martel, Gen, Mild torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-02
Updated: 2013-03-02
Packaged: 2017-12-04 02:32:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/705509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuillMage/pseuds/QuillMage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While looking for the Aionis, Zelos's treachery was discovered.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Retrieving the Aionis

Zelos clutched his upper arms tighter and tighter as he struggled to remain standing.

“Hmm, you’re lasting surprising lon-”

Zelos cried out in pain as the golden wings burst forth from his back and he fell to his knees.

“-ah, there it is.”

Yggdrasill strolled languidly up to where Zelos was half shaking with the sheer effort of remaining even as upright as he was already, half trembling in pure agony.

He stopped beside Zelos looking down at him through hooded eyes and reached out to slowly stroke a shimmering wing, droplets of blood clung to it, the wings were larger than normal and were very much solid.

Zelos just barely failed in smothering a shuddering, long-suppressed whimper.

Yggdrasill smiled and sharply tugged at the wing, causing Zelos to let out a shout of pain and make an aborted motion that may have been the beginnings of cowering.

Yggdrasill chuckled and Zelos shuddered, causing pain to ripple down his spine once more.

“Shall I make you beg before I kill you?”

Zelos didn’t look up at him but gave a shaky smile as he dug his fingers deeper into his arms, “I’d rather you not kill me at all.”

Yggdrasill crouched down in front of him and Zelos paled when his face was tilted up, “I believe you would not desire to live if it is I to choose your fate.” Then he smiled in that way that made Zelos’s blood freeze in his very veins, “And the fate of those you hold dear—Sheena, Seles, _Lloyd._ ”

“Wait, pl-” Zelos cut himself off sharply and shivered, realizing that Yggdrasill was indeed making him beg before killing him.

Yggdrasill chuckled and Zelos clutched his eyes shut against the sound, “Go on, it’s not as though you have any better option.” He said, trailing his fingers down one of the wings to press lightly against when it met Zelos’s back—it seemed Zelos was in no danger of bleeding out; the wings appeared to have stopped the blood loss.

He retracted his hand when Zelos gave a sharp gasp of pain.

Zelos looked towards the ground and realized Yggdrasill was right, “P-Please don’t hurt them.”

“And?” Yggdrasill prompted as he lifted Zelos’s face to make the boy look him in the eye. He wanted to see the fear those pretty blue eyes held in their depths.

“A-And hurt me instead, k-kill me instead.”

“So self-sacrificing,” Yggdrasill commented with a smile that inspired despair, caressing Zelos’s cheek with his right hand, “You Chosens are more similar than you would like to admit…Zelos.”

Zelos flinched at the use of his name.

“I’ve already planned to do away with you. What would you do for me to kill you and not grant the others the fate they deserve?”

Zelos turned his eyes to the ground again, unable to suffer under Yggdrasill’s direct gaze, “Anything, Lord Yggdrasill.” He all but whispered.

Yggdrasill leaned in to say softly in his ear, “Kill them for me.”

He pulled back smirking, drinking in Zelos’s horrified expression.

“You said anything. You dare not defy your lord and master, do you?” he reminded, standing.

“But you said you’d kill me…”

“And I will, after you kill them. It’s really quite simple. You can make it quick and painless. I would not. But I will slay them mercilessly if you break your vow, Zelos.”

Zelos flinched and Yggdrasill used his right hand to force Zelos’s face up towards him, causing Zelos’s neck to arch out in a manner intended for slitting throats.

“And I’ll make you watch.”

Yggdrasill had waited a long time for this—by a certain point, he wasn’t sure if he’d actually even get to ever see it.

Zelos on knees where he belongs—not merely bending at the waist with a ‘my lord’ so practiced that it had lost its meaning long before Yggdrasill had ever met him—looking up at him with unadulterated fear in his normally carefree blue eyes.

And he was begging.

Begging to do anything and everything ensure his own death counts for his friends’ own.

Not that Yggdrasill had ever had any intention of letting them—especially Lloyd—get out alive for what they did.

Pronyma materialized a small distance away; she wasted the slightest moment glancing at Zelos to confirm it was actually him finally in his proper place before stating, “The intruders have slain the gatekeeper.”

“Very well, you may go.”

She nodded and disappeared.

Yggdrasill stepped away and let his hand fall to his side, preparing to do the same.

“Please wait! Torture me, dismember me, rape me, do whatever you want, just please don’t make me kill them.”

Yggdrasill kicked him so he landed face down before grinding his foot on top of the right wing, pulling a sharp cry of pain from Zelos.

“Please, Lord Yggdrasill…”

He felt the stinging pain of a sword being thrust into his left wing with enough force to embed the blade into the tile floor as his own shortsword was drawn from its sheath.

“You wish to disobey me so our deal is off.” He stabbed Zelos’s blade into the right wing before stepping off, “I’m making you keep your life.” He crouched down front of Zelos, “And I’m going to make you regret it so very,” he picked up Zelos’s hands, “very,” he crossed them over each other. “badly.” He finished and placed his finger delicately where Zelos’s wrists intersected, implying Zelos should be thankful that he did not have another blade with him.

Yggdrasill stood.

“You look like a butterfly, Zelos, captured and pinned, unable to escape, not even in death.” He commented before he disappeared.

Zelos trembled; this was his fate, wasn’t it? Damned by the wings he took up to save both himself and Seles. First they render him helpless and at Yggdrasill’s mercy, then they are the reason he cannot even at least give his life for even one of the people he holds most dear.

“I see Yggdrasill found you before you found the Aionis.” Kratos observed, his gaze lingering on the sword embedded in Zelos’s left wing.

Zelos remain silent.

This was utterly humiliating; tormented by his foolish decisions and past sins, his inner despair is only interrupted by the sole person he hates above all others finding him in a position where he is at anyone’s mercy.

Zelos wished Kratos would insult him or something, anything to get Zelos’s mask back in place. But no, Kratos seemed fine allowing the silence to do the sardonic mocking for him.

Kratos ripped the blades out sharply, casting First Aid on each wound.

Wings free, Zelos was about moved to stand when Kratos’s foot forcefully descended upon his back to pushed him back down, “Keep your wrists crossed, Wilder. And do not move or I shall have to cast Shining Bind on you to keep you still.”

Zelos inwardly swore when he saw the unfamiliar bloodstained blade that had been stuck in his left wing descend to line up over where Yggdrasill had previously placed his finger; he’d underestimated how much of a bastard this guy was, what had possessed Zelos to think there was any sort good in the old man anyways?

The sword tip was lifted up before being thrust back down to impale cleanly through Zelos’s wrists then quickly ripped back out.

However, while his hands hurt like a bitch, what caused Zelos to actually sink to screaming in pain was the unimaginable _agony_ coming from his back.

The wings withdrew back into his body in a way that if the swords were still in them, the wings would have been torn to shreds.

The stab wounds on his wrists healed incredibly fast without scar.

No wonder the old man was so quick to pull that sword out.

Kratos removed his foot and Zelos jumped up to glare hatefully at him, “You could have just said you were going to make my wings go back in.”

“Would you have believed me?”

“Hell no, but a warning would have been nice.” Zelos shifted his gaze to the blade in Kratos’s hand, “What’s with that thing, anyway, it ain’t normal.”

Kratos glanced down at it, “Oh this? It’s really just a cheaply made sword. It’s who it belongs to that matters. Four thousand years ago Martel bought this sword from a struggling young blacksmith for her little brother and he became my apprentice.”

“‘1And so it was that the Goddess blessed the hero Mithos with a sacred blade forged in the flames of Passion and shaped with the hammer of Dedication; 2with the power to repel evil for those who wield it in Her name. 1Her next blessing was a brave knight; 2sent to accompany him as a companion 3and impart his wisdom upon the hero Mithos for his journey ahead.’” Zelos quoted, “If you really _were_ the one to write the stories, I’d say it was rather narcissistic of you to describe yourself like that.”

Kratos raised an eyebrow, “You memorized passages?”

“Hello? Chosen, got to.”

Kratos inwardly rolled his eyes.

“Though…rumor has it that up until a couple decades ago the real scripture read differently. ‘1Her next blessing came in the form of a fallen warrior burdened by past sins; 2the Goddess told the hero Mithos “Go forth, young one, and be a prophet of my grace.” 3The hero Mithos unflinchingly approached the fallen and sinful man; 4the man witnessed the power of the Goddess Martel in the hero Mithos and believed. 1The fallen and sinful man swore his fidelity to the hero Mithos; 2“No,” the hero Mithos said, “swear not loyalty to me, but to the Goddess I serve.” 3The man once more witnessed the power of the Goddess Martel in the hero Mithos; 4the man became Martel’s first vassal. 5As one of the companions to the hero Mithos, the man would later ascend and be cleansed from his sins; 6becoming the Angel of Death to carry out the Goddess’s divine will.’”

Zelos looked at him expectantly.

“Both are basically accurate enough to be called based in fact. Martel did ask her brother to come prancing—and I do not use that word lightly—up and introduce himself. That was the light of Martel-”

“Power of Martel,” Zelos corrected.

Kratos gave him a look that told Zelos that he shouldn’t try to correct a writer of holy scripture belonging to the religion Zelos was a symbol of, especially if he didn’t even really believe that much in that religion.

Zelos returned with a look that told Kratos that he should get his own bullshit right.

“-the _power_ of Martel, the kindness with which she raised him as well as the potential for greatness I saw in her brother. The rest is filler, which is why it is left out of the…revised version.” It was best that Wilder believe it was just ‘filler’; only the dead and the trees of Gaoracchia Forest knew the whole truth now.

“I don’t know about that, the ‘Angel of Death’ thing is _pret_ ty damn accurate. But this ‘revised version’, totally dictated by a hot babe with a sparkling personality a.k.a. Lloyd’s mom, right?”

“That is very thin ice you are trampling upon, Wilder, very thin ice indeed.”

“You know how I know?” Zelos’s tone suddenly became dark and biting, “Because there’s a reason why no one figured out you were Lloyd’s father. No wonder you loved her, she must have been truly amazing for my bud to turn out like he did with only half her genes there to suppress your disgusting attributes from showing through. Having a decent non-evil-demon-angel role model probably helped too.”

Zelos’s hatred for Kratos runs deep.

“Your bitterness is justified; your criticism is not within your right. You have never loved and lost.”

Zelos literally moved forward to strike Kratos only for his own sword to be pointed at his throat. He ripped it from Kratos’s grasp and sheathed it angrily, “You do not know love.” Zelos stated with quiet venom, “It is you who has no right. You had over four thousand year to forget what love is and fourteen more believing the worlds’ populations were better off worse than dead. I was raised to despise half-elves and my mother’s death only made it worse. But you know what? Even if I still held those same views, I’d pick that brat over you any day.”

“Because Genis is Lloyd’s friend?”

Zelos glared hatefully at him, “Better example. I’d pick _Yggdrasill_ over you any day. You make me _sick_.” He told around to look about the room, “Let’s just find the damn piece of shit of a rock and then we can advance to you making your son kill you on his own blade like you had to do with his mother not so long ago—not even a blink of an eye for someone of your _esteem_ —and finally fix everything so we’re all happy. I know I’ll be, because you’ll be **dead**.” He spotted the Aionis and briskly walked over, “So  good fuckin’ _riddance_.” He finished snatching up the rock.

He glared one last time at Kratos before walking straight by him.

“The traps have probably been set off by now. As much as I _hate_ this working together with you thing, I don’t have **wings**.”

Two years later—after his last transmission with Yuan had flickered out—Kratos would wonder if Zelos was happy.


End file.
